


submerged in your dreams

by arysthaeniru



Series: restless sleep (dream a little longer) [1]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Inception Fusion, Fem!Yanagi, Multi, one of those melancholy fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 10:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3443528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your totem is supposed to remind you of which world is reality, and it is supposed to be something physical. </p><p>It was the first and most important rule that Akaya was taught by Yukimura (though Sanada liked the 'don't give your subconscious a reason to kill you' as a rule before that). </p><p>Neither of those rules are being followed anymore, by him or Yanagi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	submerged in your dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [genikrispies](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=genikrispies).



As Akaya stepped back into their small and slightly messy apartment, balancing the heavy tincans on his knees to be able to slot the keys into the lock, he sighed in relief, as he deposited his stuff back on the desk. Back into silence again, thank goodness. Sometimes he forgot how loud the outside world could be. He turned towards the living room and frowned as he noticed a humming noise that shouldn’t have been there.

He glanced at the top of Yanagi-senpai’s head from over the couch and he quickly walked past the sofa until he was facing Yanagi. His lips thinned and he growled to himself, with frustration. Yanagi-senpai was plugged into the PASIV again, her long, loose hair fanning out behind her. He didn’t ever see her sleep unless she was in the PASIV. That couldn’t be healthy.

With muttered grumbling, Akaya made sure he’d locked the door, before collapsing next to Yanagi-senpai. He should turn off the PASIV and let Yanagi-senpai wake up and get dressed, so he could tell her about the call he’d received on his way here. Instead, he stared at her. Her eyes were moving behind her eyelids, restlessly and furtively. He wondered what she was dreaming of, so intently. He lifted a strand of her long, brown hair, and ran his fingers through her hair idly, in a way that she would never let him do if she was awake. It was peaceful like this.

She never got to sleep much anyway. Even if it was artificial, he should wait and let her wake in her own time. …but he was still curious as to what she was dreaming about.

"I’m awful." he muttered, as he grabbed another wire and plugged himself into Yanagi’s dream.

His vision blurred and he woke up with his eyes filled with stars. The planets seemed so much closer than ever and the stars seemed too cold and harsh from here. He could see meteor showers everywhere and the sky just looked so magical. Was Yanagi-senpai dreaming of space? Couldn’t be, he was flat against something and not moving. Akaya pulled himself to his elbows and stared at the mirrors he was standing on, which reflected the sky above. The mirrors stopped at some points and Akaya got close to one of the edges and peered down.

He yelped and jumped back from the edge, instantly regretting it. It was like seeing the ocean marina trenches just drop off into nothing, it was scary as hell. Dream or not, Akaya didn’t want to fall. Being careful to stay on the mirror, Akaya walked around carefully, until he spotted an abnormality, in this weird world of mirrors, reflections and the stars beneath his feet. As he headed closer to it, he could see long brown hair waving in the breeze and a smile touched his face.

He jumped between the platforms of mirrors with more ease, until he was right behind Yanagi-senpai. From here, he could see the edge of these strange mirror buildings, where they no longer sprouted from the ground and were bordered by a beach with bright neon yellow sand and blood-red water. This was _insane_! No wonder Yanagi-senpai’s brain had been freaking out in real-life.

Akaya took a seat next to Yanagi-senpai, letting his feet dangle down towards the abyss, with a nervous gulp. She noticed him, but didn’t move or react to his presence, just stared out into the distance, her eyes shut as ever. Akaya took the time to look at her, instead. Her hair was brighter and shinier here, and a little better trimmed, like it was regularly and meticulously taken care of. Her skin was less sallow and oily, filled with a rosiness that made her look more healthy and alive. She looked younger too, closer to Akaya’s age. Was Yanagi-senpai dreaming of herself from the past?

"Your subconscious is going to come and attack you soon." said Akaya, casually, as if it didn’t mean almost certain death for both of them and lots of pain in real life.

"I know." Yanagi said, softly, her hair buffeting a little in the breeze.

"Then, why make this?" asked Akaya, curiously, as he swung his legs a little. The air smelled sweet, like cherry blossoms and plum blossoms in Gion in the middle of spring. He missed Japan, now, in a way that he hadn’t before.

Yanagi-senpai was silent for some time, as the sea crashed into the shore and impacted some buildings. “To remind me that the world of the PASIV is the dream. In the real world, I can never make this.” she said, softly, almost inaudible with the sounds of the world around them. “I cannot change my situation in the real world. Here, in one blink of an eye, the world around me can change.”

In an instant, the sky with too close planets and stars, turned bright green and filled with neon orange clouds that played a loud, swelling orchestral bridge. Akaya winced a little and glanced around. That was bound to attract both of their subconscious here. Where was the danger going to come from? “Senpai, was that necessary?” he asked, springing up and glancing around him, as he conjured up a knife. Yanagi-senpai had already changed up the dream that much, his imagination of a knife wasn’t going to do much.

He glanced around, carefully, left and right, across the myriad of buildings and endless chasms. Neglecting to look up however, he was very surprised when he felt a stab wound go straight through his neck, which instantly killed him.

Akaya woke up with a start, his heart beating quickly and his eyes wide. He ripped the drip out of his arm, in a panic, and ran a hand through his tangled curls, as he tried to calm down his reflexes, which yearned to get up and check his neck for wounds. Had that been blue hair he’d seen before he’d died?

Another gasp came from next to him and Yanagi-senpai spluttered as if drowning, as she woke up and registered where she was, her brown eyes wide open for once. Akaya bit his lip and kicked the sofa, in annoyance. He had probably annoyed her. If he hadn’t started to chat with her, she probably wouldn’t have changed the dream and could have slept for longer. She already looked tired enough, why had he interrupted her rest? Stupid!

"Sorry." said Yanagi-senpai, as she pulled her drip out properly, stopping the fluid from the PASIV neatly, and using a gauze to clean her skin. She frowned at the drops of blood and sleeping drug left on the sofa and threw a wad of paper towels at Akaya.

Akaya smiled sheepishly, as he applied pressure to his bleeding arm and started to clean up the mess. “What are you apologizing for, senpai?” he asked, as he scrubbed at the sofa one-handedly, and sighed in relief as the blood came off with only a hint of a stain.

"You don’t like dying in dreams. It hurts more for you than for me." she said, apologetically, as she got up and grabbed some gauze and bandages for his arm. "That was my fault."

Akaya shook his head, frantically, stopping his scrubbing at the sofa in alarm. “Nah, senpai. I asked. You showed me. My fault.” he said, insistently. Yanagi-senpai didn’t seem content to accept that, as she shook her head once, firmly, and pushed him back against the sofa, so she could kneel down and reach his arm properly.

She gently placed the gauze against his inner elbow and pressed down hard to get the pressure necessary to stop him from losing too much blood. Akaya was quiet as she pushed his arm around to bandage it, watching her face, instead. She was sickly pale, her eyes dark from too many sleepless nights and her hair was limper than her dream version. The difference was stark, now that he was looking. Did he look different from how he had been?

"I know that I’m alive and in the real world, because I can’t dream without the PASIV." said Akaya, quietly,after a long silence. "I didn’t even know that you could dream without the PASIV until Sanada-senpai told me. It was kind of strange to think about!”

Yanagi-senpai’s hands paused, as she pulled at his bandage, her lips parted and slightly surprised. “I see.” she said, as she pulled the knot close and rocked back to kneel on her ankles. “And you dream when you sleep inside the PASIV. That’s how the second and third levels work, afterall.”

Akaya nodded. “Yeah. That’s how it works for me.” he said, as he got up.

"Remind me, when did you start using the PASIV?" asked Yanagi, as Akaya stretched and loped back over the kitchen where the groceries were still dumped on the table. Oops. He hoped that nothing had gone bad while they had been gone. They had only been gone for ten minutes, but he _had_ taken a long time to walk home from the supermarket. "When you were seven?"

"Yeah." confirmed Akaya, as he grabbed the eggs and milk and manhandled the fridge door to open with his foot, groaning when he saw that the light was out. "Senpai, the fridge broke again! And it wasn’t my fault this time!"

"It’s breaking now, because you broke it before." said Yanagi-senpai, reprovingly, as she followed him and peered at the broken light. Sticking a hand in, she sighed slightly, in relief. "It’s still cold, we just need to get the right wattage bulb and replace it. Put the food in." Akaya grinned in equal relief, as he shoved the eggs into the top drawer and stuffed the milk into the door, with some difficulty.

"Hey, okay, that first time wasn’t technically my fault either. That was totally Niou-senpai’s fault." Akaya said, with a slightly resentful tone.

"Your inability to control your temper when you are being teased is not Niou’s fault. You should have punched him, not the fridge." Yanagi-senpai commented, as she rummaged through the bag of groceries, came up with the matcha pocky, and immediately opened it, sticking a piece into her mouth.

"Oi, senpai, help me with these, don’t go away!" said Akaya, with an annoyed look, as he carried over the bread and some of the ready-made dinners. It was a good thing they were both young and didn’t have health problems, since neither of them could cook and practically lived off of convenience store food. "And Niou-senpai was on a job, I couldn’t punch him, Yagyuu-senpai would have carved me alive with his swiss army knife for ruining his plans."

"Then you shouldn’t have punched anything at all." said Yanagi-senpai, as she pulled out a large bundle of swiss chocolate and quirked her eyebrows at him, disapprovingly.

"They were on sale!" defended Akaya, as he took the bundle from her and stuffed it into the fridge, definitively. He was happy to steer the topic away from punching fridges. "How often is pricy chocolate on sale? Besides, you like this stuff too, don’t deny it." In fact, it was precisely because she liked it that he’d bought it. He had wanted to silently apologize for the last mission and how he’d almost screwed it up by accidentally telling Shiraishi-san about their plan.

Yanagi-senpai smirked slightly, as she leant back against the table, and said nothing. Stupid infuriating senpai who knew everything about his intentions. Oh, speaking of infuriating senpai…. “Hey, Niou-senpai called while I was at the shop. Said there was some job that was right up your alley in South Africa. We going?”

"Up my alley?" she repeated, with a peculiar tone to her voice at the wording. She was always so picky about terminology, she had definitely got that from Sanada-senpai.

"You know, the convoluted ones, with like a billion dream layers and so much politics around it that nobody sensible would poke it with a ten-foot stick." Akaya said, easily, quoting what he’d heard Marui-senpai call Yanagi-senpai’s preferences, when he’d been buying some more connections to the PASIV for the Amsterdam mission.

Straightening, Yanagi-senpai tied up her hair into a loose ponytail and pulled out her mobile-phone from the backpocket of her skirt. “Well, it’s a good thing that neither of us are very sensible, isn’t it?” she asked, with a slightly amused air to her tone.

"Totally Yukimura-senpai’s fault." said Akaya, with a grin. Being trained by Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai to be a distractor for dangerous missions from a tiny age had helped remove any sort of sense of risk assessment, as Yanagi-senpai had dryly commented on the first mission they’d done together. Still, it made up for Yanagi-senpai being too cautious about her jobs and planning too much for the situation.

Yanagi-senpai stiffened, as she always did, with the mention of Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai, and Akaya remembered the slight brush of blue hair he’d seen before he’d died in the dream. He’d known Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai for the longest time, really. He’d been taken from the military tests with the PASIV when he was ten, and had stayed with the two travellers for the rest of his life. Yanagi-senpai had joined them with Akaya had been fourteen and she had been seventeen, as a young genius that Yukimura had picked up from the university, to replace and surpass their previous architect. Still, she’d always seemed closer to his two senpai, being closer to their age and all.

"Hey, that was Yukimura-senpai in the dream, wasn’t it?" asked Akaya, uneasily, as his hand went to the back of his neck, and rubbed where the phantom wound throbbed.

Yanagi-senpai didn’t say anything, but that was enough confirmation for Akaya. He scowled and slammed the fridge shut, feeling the vibrations of it through his feet. He didn’t want to think about Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai. In his heart of hearts, he knew that what they’d done to him _technically_ counted as child exploitation, but he remembered them fondly, for all of their tough love. He remembered Yukimura-senpai’s contented smirk when they were working on conning people and the certain, distinctive laugh he had when things went his way. He remembered Sanada’s low growl when he was annoyed, and the loud slaps when Akaya wasn’t well-behaved enough, but the fond smiles and the protection he always gave Akaya when things got violent. He remembered the three of them as a dysfunctional family, as they struggled through complex missions and their own issues with health and it ached like little else.

It was easier to try to only think of them as names, and not as complex, amazing people, easier to not think of what they’d done in the name of money, power and creativity.

"They’re not coming back. Limbo’s limbo. The only ones that ever escaped were that Cobb dude and his wife. And his wife was half stuck there anyway. She never left the dream and Cobb had trouble forever." said Akaya, bitterly. "So you can stop dreaming about them, because they’re not coming back, and they never will."

"If it was that easy." said Yanagi-senpai, her voice clipped, as she walked away from the kitchen, her feet loud against the floorboards.

Akaya stared at their broken fridge and the flickering lights and the grime of the tiny apartment and thought about the missions that she usually wanted to take and Akaya found fun. Dangerous to a fault, always overly complex, filled with dream level after dream level, where they were sedated to an almost suicidal rate. With every chance of the dream collapsing, and them descending too deep into their subconscious. With every chance of them ending up in Limbo. The same missions that Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai loved, down to their very essence. The same risks that Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai had eventually succumbed to.

"You’re trying to see them, aren’t you?" accused Akaya, with a scowl, as he stormed after her, towards their bathroom, where she was washing her face.

"Whom?" she asked, looking weary. Why was she such a good liar? Good for missions, bad for interpersonal communication. He hated having to deal with her lies and he was just about to shout at her, when he paused at the expression on her face. She looked so tired and so lost and he wondered what she, the talented bright genius who’d found a small, confused family, only to have it ripped away from her all too soon, felt about losing Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai.

The same as him? Conflicted and lonely? Akaya squeezed his eyes together tightly and kicked the wall. “How often do they show up in your dreams, senpai?” he asked, lowly and hotly.

"A lot." said Yanagi-senpai, quietly, as she turned off the water and ran the overused towel over her face to dry it of the last remaining droplets. The tips of her fringe were still wet and looked even more limp than usual. "Usually to kill me. But never on official missions."

"They better not. This one looks real tough. Don’t need Sanada-senpai trying to kill me along with the dude’s mental security." said Akaya, petulatantly, as he crossed his arms. But the memories of Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai lifting him onto their shoulders, triumphantly, upon finishing their first mission together were too strong and he squeezed his eyes together tightly, again.

"I don’t want to see them yet. I’m still angry with them, senpai." he said, quietly. "I don’t want to see them. Don’t sink us into Limbo to see them. Please." His voice was choked and before he knew it, there was small tears escaping his eyes. "Don’t want to see them yet."

Yanagi-senpai ran a hand through his curls, and awkwardly pulled him closer to her. She was slightly damp from her wash, so Akaya didn’t feel as bad about crying on her shirt. “Not yet.” she agreed, her voice just as shaky as his. “Not yet.”

They stayed there like that, in the doorway of their bathroom with Yanagi-senpai holding him close, for some time, until the last of Akaya and Yanagi-senpai’s tears had dried up and they were simply holding each other close for comfort. Finally, Akaya pulled away and ran his sleeve across his face and cleared his throat, self-consciously. “I’ll go finish the packing and heat some food up. You should shower. Then we should talk about whether we’re gonna do South Africa or not, because I don’t really want to do this without backup.”

"Good plan." said Yanagi-senpai, as she looped her ponytail into a thick bun and walked to their single bedroom to grab her new clothes. Akaya glanced at his own reflection in the mirror: pale, slightly too gangly and bedraggled. God, he oozed weariness. He’d have to do something about his hair if he wanted to pull off that businessman look. Pulling a grumpy face, Akaya walked away the bathroom, his hand at the back of his neck.

~*-*~ Omake/Extension ~*-*~

Akaya pushed through the crowd, following Yanagi-senpai’s retreating back carefully through the crowd of jabbering people. He hated crowds. With a passion. He wasn’t sure why they had stopped in Turkey, on the way back to San Francisco from South Africa, but Yanagi-senpai had prefaced it with it being a 'sight he’d want to see'. If she was talking about the city; while it was sort of cool to see the marketplaces and the awnings and the beautiful sky, Akaya wasn’t much impressed by the visage. Yanagi-senpai and Yukimura-senpai had created more impressive stuff in the dream world.

He supposed that was an unfortunate side effect of being so immersed in malleable dreams. When you could create anything, by defying the laws of construction hazards, gravity and materials that you could logically make buildings out of, real life seemed so much more bland and useless. Things that were supposedly impressive were just subpar, after seeing the world ripple and bend and morph into the most beautiful things in the universe.

Finally, Yanagi-senpai disappeared down a sidealley and Akaya quickly ducked into it as well, breathing out in relief at being away from the huge body of people. Yanagi-senpai hadn’t slowed down however and Akaya jogged to catch up with her, until he almost knocked into her side. “You still haven’t said where we’re going.”

"To meet Jackal." was Yanagi-senpai’s only response and Akaya frowned. He liked Jackal-senpai well enough; he was always kind and funny and always had something for Akaya, but that wasn’t exactly a sight that he’d want to see. That was a person he’d want to see, and Yanagi-senpai was always precise about terminology. That meant they were going to see Jackal-senpai in a cool place?

As they turned further through the backstreet alleyways, the atmosphere only got darker, despite the brilliant blue skies and Akaya’s frown only grew larger as Yanagi stopped outside a nondescript door and knocked, neatly. He’d been expecting some cool building, with Yanagi-senpai’s love for architecture. The door slid open and someone gave Yanagi-senpai and he a cursory glance, before opening the door fully and letting them in. Akaya gave the doorman a slightly suspicious glare, but kept walking after Yanagi-senpai. What the hell was going on?

He smelt the incense long before they entered the main, musty room and it made him cough a little, from how strong it was. So many people were slumped over couches or beds, plugged into several PASIVs, head lolled and looking like they were half-dead. There were people walking around and monitoring them, and the ones who woke up just forced more money into the hands of the people monitoring, in order to get more time inside the dream.

Oh. It was a dream-den. He’d never been to one, only heard about them from Yukimura-senpai, who’d been duly impressed by how people managed to make money in different ways. “What are we here for, senpai?” asked Akaya, as they made their way through the myriad of people, heading towards the back of the dream den, where there was a staircase. “Through here.” murmured Yanagi-senpai, brushing her hair behind her ear when Akaya hesitated. He still hadn’t gotten a concrete answer for why they were here. Still, more than he’d trusted anyone else, he trusted Yanagi-senpai.

He followed Yanagi-senpai up the staircase, with the swaying lightbulb in the centre of the stairwell making a slightly disorienting atmosphere. The smell was getting to Akaya's head, and he pressed his fingers to his temples as Yanagi-senpai pushed past the bead-curtain to get to the room upstairs. The smell was even stronger here, despite there being far less people here, but Akaya tried to ignore it, when he spotted a familiar bald head. “Jackal-senpai!” he called, as he walked over, with a grin. Jackal-senpai turned around to see them and smiled, widely and with surprise.

"Akaya!" he replied, as he pulled Akaya into a quick hug. "Yanagi." he said, with a little more curtness. "I wasn’t expecting you to come along, Akaya." he said, with a slightly worried look. "I didn’t think you’d want to see them."

Them. They were in a dream den. And the only two that Akaya didn’t want to see…. “You put their bodies here?” he asked, his voice a little hushed. Yanagi-senpai and Jackal-senpai both looked away and Akaya had gotten more than adept at reading silences as affirmatives. He pushed past both of them, to go to the back of the room where the two sleeping bodies lay on couches. They were still connected to the battered PASIV that Akaya remembered from their several missions together and their faces were serene. Too serene. It seemed so strange to see Sanada-senpai without a frown on his face or Yukimura-senpai without the self-contented smirk.

His fists clenched tightly together at his sides, his fingernails digging into his palms to the point where it hurt. His vision was slightly tinted with red as he stared at them and his breathing became a little harder, but quickly, there was a cautionary hand on the back of his neck, cool and soothing. The red quickly faded away and his shoulders slumped. They had to be somewhere, he guessed. Here was okay. Turkey was nice, he supposed and if they were in an actual hospital, they’d be put into prison.

He broke free of Yanagi-senpai’s grasp and walked forward to sit by Sanada-senpai’s side. His hands were folded over his chest, like you positioned dead bodies. It didn’t feel right, even if they were still faintly breathing. Sanada-senpai and Yukimura-senpai had always slept together, holding each other close, like for that moment in time, they were the only two people on earth. Even if they were hooked up to the same PASIV, they weren’t together, not really. On the crossed hands, he noticed Sanada-senpai’s ring, glinting under the faint light. Yukimura-senpai never wore his wedding ring, Akaya had never understood that. But Sanada-senpai never took his off, even for jobs. It was okay, since Sanada-senpai rarely had to flirt with people, and even if he did, he used the married card to his advantage, but it had always been something he’d thought strange.

With a slight sigh, Akaya pulled the ring free of Sanada’s finger. It left a faint, red indent on his skin and Akaya twisted the ring in his hands. Sanada-senpai was never going to wake up. He wouldn’t need it anymore, and in a place like this, it was practically a miracle that someone hadn’t wrested the gold and diamonds from Sanada-senpai already and pawned it. It was better that Akaya kept it. He pushed the ring into his pocket, quickly, feeling like he had done something wrong and that Sanada-senpai was going to wake up and shout at him for being a child. But Sanada-senpai was never going to wake up.

He had to remember that. They weren’t coming back. Not if they had been there a year. 5000 years in Limbo would leave them insane.

Yukimura-senpai’s breath hitched a little and Akaya stood up, suddenly. Were they waking up? He ran to Yukimura-senpai’s side, and pressed a hand to his throat, feeling for a pulse, frantically. When people woke up from comas, their pulse got back to a normal level, right? Yanagi-senpai and Jackal-senpai, who had been quietly talking and from what it looked like, arguing, turned to looked at Akaya’s sudden movement.

"He was breathing funny-" prefaced Akaya and Yanagi’s eyes opened as she went to Yukimura-senpai’s side, as well, her fingers at his wrist. Her hair fell down against Yukimura’s face as she timed the pulse and waited, her lips parted and glistening with her uncertainty and slight excitement. But as thirty seconds passed, in excruciating length, her face slowly fell and she became her usual closed-off self. "He’s still in Limbo. He’s not waking up."

Akaya let out a breath of air. He didn’t know whether he was happy or sad about the fact. He stared down at Yukimura-senpai’s beautiful features, and the way his hands didn’t seem to want to lie flat on his chest, like Sanada-senpai’s. He pulled Yukimura-senpai’s hand away from his chest and let it drop near Sanada-senpai’s. He pulled Sanada-senpai’s hand away as well, with a little more difficulty, until their hands were brushing. Not anywhere near how it was supposed to be, but better than before. Yanagi-senpai watched his actions with muted silence and this time, it was Akaya who placed a hand on her arm, as he pulled her away from them.

"Akaya." said Jackal-senpai, quietly as they walked back towards the stairwell. "Yanagi won’t listen, but maybe you will. I don’t think they’re ever going to wake up and this is a waste of resources and a waste of them. It would be kinder to let them die, rather than let them wander Limbo forever. Let me pull the plug. Let’s give them a proper burial, send them off together, how they’d want it."

That would close the issue, wouldn’t it? Allow Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai to die, and then Yanagi-senpai would stop thinking about Limbo. And maybe he and Yanagi-senpai could keep on living, or even go back to legitimate jobs, like Jackal-senpai did, as a doctor. They could just leave Yukimura-senpai and Sanada-senpai as happy memories, instead of a bitter reality. Easier for Akaya, definitely. But…. Yanagi-senpai had kept them alive this long for a reason.

"…Yukimura-senpai never wanted to die and Sanada-senpai wanted to be with Yukimura-senpai forever." said Akaya, quietly, as his hand dropped from Yanagi-senpai’s elbow. "They’re both living their dreams. Leave them be. I’ll pay the money, don’t worry about it, Jackal-senpai."

Jackal looked slightly exasperated, but just sighed as he adjusted his suit. “Alright, Akaya. It was good seeing you anyway. Drop by Brazil sometime soon, my wife wants to meet you and Yanagi. I’ll keep checking up on these two like I have been.”

"Thank you, Jackal." said Yanagi-senpai, quietly, as she bowed, lowly, almost to 90 degrees.

Jackal just sighed again, looking a mixture of fond and exasperated, as they all walked down the stairwell. “I care about them too, you know? Yukimura was my friend.” he said, quietly. “Don’t think I’m saying this because I hate them. I just wonder if there’s a better way than this.”

"Opportunities left open are for the best." Yanagi-senpai, said quietly, as they walked back through the first dream-den. Akaya said nothing as he passed them and they went back out into the alleyway. "Maybe they will not wake up. But maybe they will. I want to leave the possibility open, rather than make the percentage 0%." she said, as she turned to Jackal. "Please support us in this, Jackal."

"….I will." said Jackal, finally, with a sigh. "I will, damnit. Stay safe." He tucked his hands into his pockets and strode away from the dream den.

Akaya watched him leave, before swallowing slightly, as he met Yanagi-senpai’s gaze. Her hair swayed slightly in the breeze and she looked slightly distant, before she focused down at Akaya. She smiled at him, softly and sadly. “Sorry. You wouldn’t have wanted to come if I’d told you.”

"Let me make my own choices." said Akaya, with a scowl, as he turned away from her gaze. It was difficult to tell her anything when she looked at him like that. "You don’t always know what’s best for me. If you can give two mentally-dead people a choice, you can damn well give your partner a choice." He sounded like a petulant child, but damnit, he was an adult too, he could make his own choices about whom he wanted to see and whom he didn’t.

"It wasn’t for your good. It was for mine." said Yanagi-senpai quietly. "Sorry for being selfish."

And what could he say to that? He could hardly deny her being selfish. Akaya exhaled deeply, feeling his shoulders slump. He kicked a nearby pebble and watched it rattle down the alleyway and collide with a dustbin. Fuck, that had hurt. “…let’s just go. Don’t they have good streetfood around here?” he said, forcing a smile onto his face, as he tried to look for the way out.

Yanagi-senpai’s eyebrows twitched as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You really want to get ill from the bad water now? Four hours before a twenty-hour flight?” she asked dryly and Akaya rolled his eyes, as they walked out together.

"Then let’s find something that won’t lead to explosive diarrhoea. Tell me percentages, and I’ll take the risk." he answered, as he elbowed her side, with a little more force than usual. She twitched a little, but didn’t retaliate beyond pinching his cheek quickly. Akaya’s finger rubbed over the ring in his pocket, but kept walking and lightly joking with Yanagi-senpai despite it.


End file.
